


We End Where We Began

by rosecake



Category: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel - James Luceno, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Canon Compliant and Major Character Death really seem like redundant tags for this fandom?, Character Study, Family, Gen, Home, Pre-Canon, Rogue One First Anniversary Week, everyone STILL dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 22:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12994074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosecake/pseuds/rosecake
Summary: Jyn's never stayed in one place for very long.





	We End Where We Began

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Rogue One First Anniversary Week's day two writing prompt, home.

**the beginning - vallt**

Jyn Erso was born in a prison cell on Vallt, a cold and glacial world inhospitable to human life.

Her parents never liked to discuss it with her. She was a curious child, though, and so she pried until she got the basics out of them. Her mother told her they'd originally gone there for her father's work, before the war broke out. Later her father explained that they'd been rescued by an old friend of his.

Later her parents would realize they'd never really been rescued. Only the nature of the prison had changed.

 

**prequel no. 1 - grange**

Jyn's father was born on Grange, a poor agrarian world in a mostly empty sector of the galaxy. He didn't talk about it much. In fact, most of what Jyn knew about Grange she'd heard secondhand from her mother, not from her father.

"Do you ever miss it?" she asked.

Her father didn't answer right away, but that wasn't uncommon for him. "You mean Grange?" he asked. "No. Not really."

"Why not? Did you not like it there?"

"Well, I didn't hate it. It was a hard place to really like, but I didn't hate it," he said. He gathered up the flimsies that were spread out in front of him, ready to put his work away for the night. "I suppose I get nostalgic about it sometimes, but I think that's got less to do with Grange as a place than it does with childhood generally."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll understand when you're older," he said. "Anyway, I much prefer the here and now, with you and your mother."

"Do you think we'll ever visit?" she asked.

"No," he said, a little harshly, and then he inhaled deeply and continued on in his normal tone. "No, Jyn. The war... The war was very hard on Grange. And there wasn't much there to start with." He picked her up, holding her tightly to his chest as he carried her to her room.

"You don't need to think about Grange," he said as he laid her down in her bed. "That's in the past, and you've got a whole future in front of you to think about."

 

**prequel no. 2 - aria prime**

Jyn's mother was born on Aria Prime, a small planet in the Inner Rim, and she liked talking about her homeworld much more than Galen did.

"It was a nice place to grow up," she told Jyn, a little wistfully. "It's nothing like Coruscant, but it's not a backwater either. There are cities all over the surface, big ones, with all the schools and medical facilities and other benefits civilization brings. But it's not _all_ city like it is here. There are still plenty of places where you can go out and be alone with yourself for a while, just be in nature. Where it's dark enough that you can see still see the stars at night."

"Can we visit?" asked Jyn. They'd only just gotten back to Coruscant from their trip to Alpinn, but she already missed the freedom of being outside. "And can we take Papa with us this time?"

Her mother smiled and patted Jyn on the head. "One day," she said. "I wish I could have taken you, while your grandmother was still alive," she said, her voice turning sad, "but I never could get our travel permits approved."

Her mother made plans, but they never did come to fruition. The travel restrictions stayed in place until the day they left Coruscant for Lah'mu in a smuggler's ship.

When she was grown, Jyn could fake up any travel permits she wanted without much trouble, but she had no interest in seeing Aria Prime if her mother wasn't with her.

 

**part 1 - coruscant**

Her family moved from Vallt to Coruscant to Lokori, but the earliest home Jyn could actually remember in more than fleeting images and impressions was their second set of apartments on Coruscant.

Coruscant was massive, the most heavily populated planet in the galaxy, but Jyn's part of that world was small and carefully confined. A few rooms, her mother and her father, and the family droid. Sometimes her father's friend would stop by too, but he never took much notice of Jyn, and he never stayed long. It was easy enough to ignore him.  It was small, but she liked it. 

Her father was hesitant as he explained to her that she was going to have to leave it behind. He knelt so that he was on her level, and she realized that he wasn't wearing his uniform. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him wear anything else.

"We have to leave now, Stardust, and I'm so sorry, but we're never going to be able to come back here again," he said. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said. She didn't really care. Mama and Papa were both coming with her, and that was the important thing.

 

**part 2 - lah'mu**

Lah'mu was bright green grass and black soil and white clouds. There was a tension that hung around her parents when they explained the hatch to her, when they explained that she had to watch the sky for strange ships, but it eased when they changed the subject to other things. Mostly, they seemed happy. Her mother took her through the endless valleys and mountains around their home, and her father carefully carved her new toys to replace the ones she'd had to leave behind on Coruscant.

It was just the three of them.  And if Jyn could have had any wish in the galaxy, it would have been to keep things that way forever.  

 

**part 3 - the partisans**

Saw kept them moving. Constantly moving, so often that there were times when Jyn wasn't actually sure what planet or moon she was on.

"When you get complacent, that's when they catch you," he told her.

She adapted quickly, because there wasn't really any other choice. She learned to live out of her bag, just like everyone else in the Partisans. People came and went, but eventually some of the faces became familiar, even if the places kept changing.

She barely even though of it as a home until it was taken from her.  Only then, in its absence, did she realize how much she'd had to lose.    

 

**part 4 - nothing**

Saw left her behind, and after that Jyn had nothing. No home, no friends, and just the thought of family made her feel sick. So she made herself a few fake identities, all of them from worlds she'd never been to, places she'd barely even bothered to research. Sloppy work, really, but it wasn't like Kestrel or Liana or Tannith knew anyone who cared enough to ask questions. It didn't matter where they came from. It only barely mattered that they existed. 

Kestrel/Liana/Tannith drifted for nearly five years before life caught up with her. 

 

**the end - wobani**

Jyn Erso was born in a prison cell, so it seemed appropriate that she should die in one too.

 

**epilogue - scarif**

Jyn Erso doesn't die in a prison cell. She's rescued, and it only buys her an extra week of life, but that's just enough time to change everything.

Her knees hit the sand on Scarif's beach, and the endless water and smell of salt overwhelm her with memories of Lah'mu. For the first time in a lifetime the memories don't hurt. Cassian is with her, and she cares about him, and he cares about her. She cares about the rest of them, too, Bodhi and Chirrut and Baze and even K-2S0, all of them somewhere on this beach with her even if she can't see them, and that should hurt, because if they aren't dead already they're going to be dead soon. It doesn't hurt, though. She's just happy to care.

When Jyn Erso dies she is free and she is loved. 


End file.
